I am ArtemisBSG, I am a 39 year old cancer survivor who cannot get health insurance from ANYONE or afford out of pocket costs. My hopes had rested on the lawmakers to do the right thing and offer a public option to people in my situation.
Today, those hopes were dashed and I feel really, really sad and beaten down. I will always state quite clearly that my personal feelings are that health care for all Americans should be a right – not a privilege.
It’s Health Care, Not a Fu%$ing Pony!!
It’s a public option – not a pony for everyone! The public option was even a concession made for not getting Single Payer even remotely looked at in a serious way. We caved already – we let them have the first go at it with the promise – or so we thought - of something decent in the works that would help the hardworking middle class little guy or gal.
Well, we have been bamboozled and I have to tell you, it hurts, real bad. I feel like I’ve been spurned by a lover, dumped on a big date by the quarterback, left on the side of the road and told to find my own damn ride home.
WTF!!!
Needing good, affordable health care should be a "right" for everyone in America. Yet we are told over and over by people from all walks of life and all socioeconomic levels that it is a privilege - that if you are uninsured or can’t afford health care, that you must have screwed up somehow along the way and you are getting what you deserve for your ineptitude and irresponsibility.
"Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and don’t take one thin dime of my tax money to pay for your damned chemo or radiation. I don’t want to be forking over my hard earned dollars to pay for your stupid cancer treatment – the nerve!"
I feel so hurt right now, although I prepared myself for the worst, and hoped for the best. I bolstered my fragile emotions with a bit of chocolate and an episode of The X-files to get ready for The Baucus Unveiling. Yeah, I hoped for a better outcome, I try to be an optimist, but mandates? Fines!? No Public Option?!! Anyone with even a modicum of common sense, or even half a brain can see what a gift this is to the insurance industry. Hey, let’s force 47 million Americans to pay for junk insurance they can’t afford anyway, no matter how much they do want it in the first place, don’t make it in any way affordable, don’t cover anything they need, still keep the status quo and perhaps your smarty pants CEO can afford to buy yet another mansion in the "The Hamptons" and send little Heather or Suzie to a great private school.
The very people who were screaming at the Town Halls over the summer, who marched in the 9/12 uh - event? (More like a country church picnic from the looks of it) who were so set against any kind of public option ultimately will be screwed by this plan down the road. And I don’t want to hear (and most DKos people probably don't want it to hear) their bellyaching when it does happen, because we Single Payer supporters warned them.
Why are Americans so afraid of change? Why do Americans not want to help their fellow man? Why can’t they see that in the long run helping people and keeping your fellow man healthy and productive would help everyone?
I am so overcome by common sense right now and a broken heart that I think I will tune out for a few days, eat some more chocolate and watch some more X-files. Oh and of course go back to worrying about not being able to afford health care, not being able to get health insurance and having absolutely no F*&%ing clue if my cancer is back because I don’t have the money to pay out of pocket. Wonderful! Thanks Max, I hope you enjoy your health insurance money, maybe you can buy some kid a pony with it.